


The girl left behind

by Goldenheartedrose



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Book: The Last Battle, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-31
Updated: 2012-03-31
Packaged: 2017-11-02 19:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldenheartedrose/pseuds/Goldenheartedrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susan encounters a drawing belonging to Lucy after she is left behind after the events of The Last Battle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The girl left behind

**Author's Note:**

> I've always been fascinated by Susan's story -- the one Pevensie who never made it back to Narnia in The Last Battle. 
> 
> The drawing that Susan is looking at is something that I actually drew myself. You can see it here: http://dontborethereader.tumblr.com/post/20241630363

It was all she had left, just this one drawing.  The childlike strokes reflected a much earlier time, a simpler time.  A time when Susan wasn’t alone.  _Narnia_.  Just the word sent shivers down her spine.  She desperately wished that she hadn’t snubbed her nose at Lucy’s insistence that they reminisce about that time so long ago. 

Now, she was alone.  She had chosen to stay in America with some cousins rather than return to England.  There had been a railway accident, and everyone she loved had been killed.  Her mother.  Her father.  Lucy.  Edmund.  Peter. Even Eustace. And that nice girl Jill that often came around. 

At first, she had felt shock.  She spent several days wondering if she was in some sort of dream.  It couldn’t actually be true, could it? Could she really be utterly and completely _alone_?  Now all of her girlish desires seemed so ridiculous, silly, and unimportant.  Who cared about boys and makeup and being popular when her family was just _gone_?

She looked over the drawing.  It was very simple, with thick lines outlining the girl in the picture.  It was Lucy, of course.  She stood in what was very obviously a snowy wood, illuminated by only the single lamppost she had her arm around.  The light was an orange hue, warm and comforting.  Lucy’s hair had been so very short back then, with barrettes and bobby socks.   

Susan longed for those days.  Not just the days of childhood, but their time in Narnia. 

That time had been a war of a different type.  Not a war within herself, struggling to survive.  The war that took her father away, and distracted both Peter and Edward in their desire to do _something_ to contribute.  They had been sent away to the Professor’s house in the British countryside.  It had been difficult.  Lucy, especially, was prone to deep bouts of homesickness.  Susan had tried to be a motherly figure, to comfort the younger ones.  She had been worried about Lucy after a game of hide and go seek.  She was afraid of what had happened to Lucy.  She had considered writing to Mother, about questioning Lucy’s sanity.  It would have been one thing had actual time passed between the time they began looking for Lucy and the time she had returned.  But no time had passed.  And yet, she emerged from the wardrobe with a story of a faun – a faun! Could you imagine anything so ridiculous?

And yet – it had all been true.  Just days later, they attempted to keep out of Mrs. Mcreavy’s way and had all ended up in the wardrobe.  They had all found a passage to Narnia.  What had transpired after that was life-changing. 

They had fought a war.

They had bested a witch.

Aslan had made them kings and queens over Narnia.

They had ruled for many years as such.

One day, they had encountered a vaguely familiar lamppost, traveled back through the wardrobe and had found that little to no time had passed.  They were children again.  It was jarring.

In the days that followed, Lucy and Edmund had enjoyed reminiscing about Narnia often.  Peter indulged them; Susan did not.  It was too difficult.  She had enjoyed Narnia just as much as the rest of them.  Perhaps more.  It was where she learned to shoot a bow and arrow.  It was where her love of animal welfare had begun.  But she could never go back – she was forever stuck in _this world_.  So she had refused to indulge in Lucy’s reminiscing.  It broke her heart too much.

Now she wished she had.  She wished that she had spent more time with her sister and brothers.  She wished that she could go back in time.  She wished that she could bring them back.

More than anything, she didn’t want to be alone anymore. 

Her heart was broken.

“I’m so sorry,” she said to no one in particular.  God, Aslan, whoever – someone had to be listening, right?  She had taken everyone, everything for granted.  “If there’s anyone listening, I’m sorry.  I don’t want to be alone anymore…I can’t be alone.”  Tears stained her pillow. Her heart fluttered and she could have sworn she heard a lion’s roar in her ears as she drifted off to sleep.


End file.
